In Aelsif, armour is very effective (by the standards of most games, anyway). It provides a small amount of AC, usually provides DR with a type weakness, and usually provides ER with a strength against a particular element. Armour obviously has weights, with heavier armour providing more AC and DR. Armour has material qualities, with high-quality armour providing higher DR and ER.

Helmets are supplemental, and they provide a secondary increase to AC. Helmets too have weights, with heavier helmets giving more AC. The issue is, helmets only provide AC, but they're also supposed to have material qualities, and if material impacted their AC it would cause a couple problems.

Firstly, it's unbalancing. The fact that AC does not increase as the game progresses is important, because AC does not inherently fall behind as the game progresses and it'd be too easy to hit a level of AC that would make enemies require a natural 20 to hit. So, AC needs to remain constant for a given weight of armour.

Secondly, they'd end up with more AC than armour. Helmets start off providing the exact same amount of AC as armour, for example medium armour and a medium helmet both provide AC 3, so wearing both means AC 6.

Third, it's inconsistent. Armour AC does not increase as a character levels, why would helmet AC increase if armour AC didn't?

And yet, higher-quality materials need to have SOME effect, and I'm not sure item HP and hardness are good enough to justify trading in that rusty old iron helmet for a clean, mild steel one, much less trading in that mild steel one for a hardened steel one, or so forth. So if anybody has any ideas, we could use them.

It's easy enough to think of special qualities for different materials. Maybe higher DR, different DR weakness, % chance to negate critical hits, % chance to reflect half damage to attacker, and so on.

My concern is, having no practical knowledge of Aelsif, with regard to how different armour pieces interact with an attack. If an attack beats the AC, which armour piece (body, head, etc) is triggered for its special quality to matter? Or is this concern not really a concern because all special qualities from different armour pieces just apply to the wearer? What happens if different armour pieces are of different materials and/or different makes or quality?

Example: My hero has an AC 6 breastplate with % chance to negate a crit, and an AC 3 helm with a % chance to reflect half the damage to the attacker. If the attack crits my AC 9, which of my two special armour effects come into effect? Would the crit be negated, or will half the crit damage be reflected? Or do both effects trigger, so the crit is negated and only half the normal damage is reflected?

Another example: My hero has body armour with DR 3\bludgeoning and helmet with DR 2\slashing. If the attack hits and deals 5 bludgeoning damage, does this mean I only receive 3 bludgeoning damage because the body armour is ignored but the helmet remains effective?

It's easy enough to think of special qualities for different materials. Maybe higher DR, different DR weakness, % chance to negate critical hits, % chance to reflect half damage to attacker, and so on.

Materials are only going to modify existing traits, or at most provide a specific benefit against creatures weak to the material your armour is made of. The game doesn't work like Diablo, you aren't getting six special effects on every armour piece.

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My concern is, having no practical knowledge of Aelsif, with regard to how different armour pieces interact with an attack. If an attack beats the AC, which armour piece (body, head, etc) is triggered for its special quality to matter? Or is this concern not really a concern because all special qualities from different armour pieces just apply to the wearer? What happens if different armour pieces are of different materials and/or different makes or quality?

The qualities of armour are all applied to the wearer, except item HP and hardness, but they're hardly special. Direct increases to AC, DR and ER. Penalty to some skills. Weight. If you infuse armour, the effects of that single infusion, and items can only be infused once.

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Example: My hero has an AC 6 breastplate with % chance to negate a crit, and an AC 3 helm with a % chance to reflect half the damage to the attacker. If the attack crits my AC 9, which of my two special armour effects come into effect? Would the crit be negated, or will half the crit damage be reflected? Or do both effects trigger, so the crit is negated and only half the normal damage is reflected?

A breastplate provides AC 3, as does a medium helm. Infused armour is a thing, but most infusions are elemental with a "like kills like" philosophy. IE, a breastplate of fire is hot (while active and charged), so it provides reduced ER against fire as well as making you more vulnerable in hot weather. However, it also deals fire damage with your natural weapon strikes and boosts fire damage from your spells and weapons, and it gives a bonus against cold damage and cold weather.

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Another example: My hero has body armour with DR 3\bludgeoning and helmet with DR 2\slashing. If the attack hits and deals 5 bludgeoning damage, does this mean I only receive 3 bludgeoning damage because the body armour is ignored but the helmet remains effective?

Helmets do not provide DR, but DR does stack from multiple sources. IE, a hobgoblin with DR 2/-- gets 2 DR on top of whatever their armour gives them. If they're wearing a gambeson that provides a DR 5/Pierce and get hit with a slash attack for 9 damage, they'll resist 7 damage and take 2, but if they're hit for 9 pierce damage, they'll still resist 2 and take 7. Make sense?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that all the effects derived from worn armour pieces are applied altogether against an attack.

If that is the case, then go ahead and have a field day with applying varying armour effects depending on material, quality, size, location, whatever!

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Materials are only going to modify existing traits, or at most provide a specific benefit against creatures weak to the material your armour is made of. The game doesn't work like Diablo, you aren't getting six special effects on every armour piece.

If you're not willing to go beyond this limitation (i.e. not going out of the box), then your options for changing your situation becomes severely limited. This is not necessarily bad, though - it keeps us from messing too much with the game's design/balance.

Oh sorry. I was working on the understanding that you wanted some other stuff to work off of wearing helmets than just bonus AC. Never mind me then.

Okay, in review, I seem to have completely misread you. Sorry about that, I'm not even sure how I got what I did from what you wrote, but no wonder I thought you were completely off on what I was asking. Let's try again.

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Originally Posted by TheGreyWulf

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that all the effects derived from worn armour pieces are applied altogether against an attack.

Yes.

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If that is the case, then go ahead and have a field day with applying varying armour effects depending on material, quality, size, location, whatever!

If you're not willing to go beyond this limitation (i.e. not going out of the box), then your options for changing your situation becomes severely limited. This is not necessarily bad, though - it keeps us from messing too much with the game's design/balance.

Okay, see, here's where I got you wrong. See, I read that as meaning inconsistent Diablo-esque effects. "Oh, tempered medium helmet... 15% chance to reflect damage. Then the royal medium helmet will get +3 on loot tables. And the tempered heavy helmet will get +4 max HP!". Seeing as this game is supposed to make sense, you can probably see why I was not having an idea like that.